WORK

“Failure”

To pay for my father’s funeral I borrowed money from people he already owed money to. One called him a nobody. No, I said, he was a failure. You can’t remember a nobody’s name, that’s why they’re called nobodies. Failures are unforgettable. The rabbi who read a stock eulogy about a man who didn’t belong to or believe in anything was both a failure and a nobody. He failed to imagine the son and wife of the dead man being shamed by each word. To understand that not believing in or belonging to anything demanded a kind of faith and buoyancy. An uncle, counting on his fingers my father’s business failures—a parking lot that raised geese, a motel that raffled honeymoons, a bowling alley with roving mariachis—failed to love and honor his brother, who showed him how to whistle under covers, steal apples with his right or left hand. Indeed, my father was comical. His watches pinched, he tripped on his pant cuffs and snored loudly in movies, where his weariness overcame him finally. He didn’t believe in: savings insurance newspapers vegetables good or evil human frailty history or God. Our family avoided us, fearing boils. I left town but failed to get away.

—Philip Schultz
—from Failure

WORD(S)

subfusc. adjective or noun. Of a dark color; sombre, gloomy. A dusky color. Clothing of that color. From Latin subfuscus, rather dark.

“Night descended…the aching light of day grew subfusc.” (Nick Cave)

“Philo. What was his after life? The Poet. A semitone, A noon subfusc.” (Sylvester Judd)

“Augustine lifted his puzzled gaze to a branch overhead, where a subfusc mottled chameleon’s bulbous eyes (they had only a tiny hole in the middle to see through) focused a fly.” (Richard Hughes)

“The dust, in a dirty brown cloud, blotted out the early sun; bowed figures, subfusc and gagged, groped their way down Ghazzah Street…” (Hilary Mantel)

“I failed to ask my learned junior, Kenneth Cracknell, Esq., who appeared wearing a lightish-grey suit under his gown (no doubt in some radical protest against the regulation subfusc) with dark hair flowing in some profusion from under his wig…” (John Mortimer)

WEB

1. A profile of of Mary Beard, classics professor and renowned writer about antiquity (I’ve been enjoying her recent book about laughter and jokes in Ancient Rome)…and how she’s taken to the social media and sexism battle(s) like few of her peers.

2. Cedric Laquieze creates miniature “taxidermy fairies” using insect parts. Delicate and so-not-Tinkerbell.

3. “A professional musician for more than a decade, he stepped away from the piano and embarked on a design career with no formal training. Eleven years later, he is a renowned designer who has put the face on hundreds of books.” The Art of Designing Ulysses, Lolita, and Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. And accompanying ► PBS NewsHour segment.

4. List: Hit Singles From the 1990s in Passive Voice.

5. Today in 1920, Charlie “Bird” Parker, perhaps the greatest jazz saxaphonist ever, is born. Read about Bird with some supporting music clips. Ponder Bird and the Beats. If you’re a musician—or serious listener—check out Steve Coleman on Parker. And, if nothing else, check out the Quintet at Massey Hall, the only meeting of Bird, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Mingus and Max Roach: free on YouTube or Spotify.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader A. remarks on Lifehacker’s profile of Ira Glass: “Thankfully no life hacker ‘I am Ira Glass and this is How I Tweet’.”

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